22 NOVEMBER 1963, Page 18

NOT LINCOLN

SIR,—The Lincoln 'quotation' in H. C. Beere's letter (October 11) is not authentic. There is a considerable amount of literature of this type, much of which

was fabricated for partisan purposes. This particulair example is not a deliberate fabrication, but an excerpt from a book by a Pittsburgh clergyman published in 1917, which was widely circulated by an insurance company in a circular with a portrait of Lincoln on the reverse side. Because of this, it has frequently been attributed to Lincoln even in the Congressional Record. Although the author's name was given in the circular, casual readers apparently assumed he was the author of a biography of Lincoln.

WILLIAM SQUIRE